Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, he had in his service a Brahmin who professed to judge the quality of swords. He had a flat nose. And the king called in the surgeons and had him fitted with a false tip to his nose which was cunningly painted like a real nose; and then the Brahmin resumed his duties again about the king. Now Brahmadatta had no son, only a daughter and a nephew, whom he had brought up under his own eye. And when these two grew up, they fell in love with one another. So the king sent for his councilors and said to them, “My nephew is heir to the throne. If I give him my daughter in marriage, he shall be anointed king.”

On a second thought, he decided that as in any case his nephew was like a son, he had better marry him to a another princess, and give his daughter to a prince of another royal house. For, he thought, this plan would give him more grand-children and his dynasty will grow. And after consulting with his councilors, he decided to separate the two, and they were accordingly made to live apart from one another.

Now they were sixteen years old and very much in love, and the young prince thought of nothing but how to carry away the princess from her father’s palace. At last he consulted a wise woman, to whom he gave a pocketful of money. She said, “Prince! I will tell the king that his daughter is under the influence of witchcraft. To cure her, I have to take her to cemetery; I will place her in bed and under which I will put a dead body. You go to the cemetery before us in your carriage with an armed escort, taking some ground pepper with you. Arrived at the cemetery, you will leave your carriage at the entrance, and dispatch your men to the cemetery grove, while you will yourself go to the top of the mound and lie down as though dead. Then I will come and set up a bed over you on which I will lay the princess. Then the time will come when you must sniff at the pepper till you sneeze two or three times, and when you sneeze we will leave the princess and take to our heels.

Then you must take the princess home with you.” The prince exclaimed, “a most excellent plan.”

So the old woman went to the king and told him that the princess is under witchcraft. He asked her to release the princess from it.

So the wise woman went to the princess and the plan was explained to her. When the day came, The old woman said to the guards on the road in order to frighten them, “Listen. Under the bed that I shall set up a dead man; and that dead man will sneeze. And mark well that, so soon as he has sneezed, he will come out from under the bed and seize on the first person he finds. So be prepared, all of you.”

Now the prince had already got to the place and got under the bed as had been arranged.

The old woman led the princess there, laid her upon the bed, whispering to her not to be afraid. At once the prince sniffed at the pepper and fell a sneezing. The wise woman left the princess and ran away with a loud scream. All the guards also ran for their life. Then the Prince took the Princess in the arms and carried away as arranged. And the old woman went to the king and told him what had happened.

The king thought, “I always intended her for him, and they’ve grown up and chose their way.” So he made his nephew king of the land with his daughter as queen.

Now the new king kept on in his service the Brahmin who professed to tell the temper of swords, sneezed and the false tip to the brahmin’s nose got loose and fell off. And there he he stood, hanging his head for very shame. The king said, “Never mind! never mind! Sneezing is good for some, but bad for others. you lost your nose because os a sneeze, while I have to thank a sneeze for both my throne and queen.”

After a life spent in charity and other good works, he passed away to fare according to his deserts.